Design Crazy

By Max Chafkin

(Fast Co./Byliner; $1.99)

The increasingly popular oral-history format proves to have been a wise choice for "Design Crazy," Max Chafkin's short but dramatic tale of Apple's re-ascension under Steve Jobs. Chafkin interviewed dozens of former Apple employees for the book, and by simply letting these subjects speak (he occasionally interjects to provide context), Chafkin captured the honesty, passion and humor of some of the company's most influential players from the days of the first Mac through to the births of the iconic iMac, iPod and iPhone.

Though some of the revelations here won't be new to readers of Walter Isaacson's 2012 biography, "Steve Jobs," "Design Crazy" is less about Jobs' life and times than it is about the environment he fostered. Some interviewees argue that that environment stifled individual growth for the benefit of superior product, while others praise the company for transforming the way the world thinks about design. "They focused on making people love the product," says Horace Dediu, an independent analyst. "And that's the distinction at the end of the day. Everybody else was focusing on being smart. Apple focused on being loved."

Pretty Doll Houses

(Bloomsbury Reader; $8.99)

Bloomsbury Reader, a new series from the British publisher, is helping bring a new audience to many under-the-radar authors, including Gabriel Fielding, born Alan Gabriel Barnsley and a descendant of Henry Fielding. The younger Fielding achieved recognition in the 1960s, mostly in his native Britain, for novels including "The Birthday King" and "Pretty Doll Houses."

"Pretty Doll Houses," inspired by the author's mother's journals, is a refreshing coming-of-age story set in England and Wales in the 1920s and '30s. With the comedic spirit and keen observation of Evelyn Waugh, Fielding creates a riveting portrait of a clever but unambitious teenager caught between his deeply religious (but adulterous) mother, his retired-vicar father, his five siblings and a cast of prospective lovers who share the protagonist's ethereal summer escape on the coast of northern Wales. "Pretty Doll Houses" is an unforgettable novel, and happily Bloomsbury has made several of Fielding's other novels available in the Reader series.

By Jason Zinoman

(Kindle Singles; $2.99)

Jason Zinoman doesn't actually find Dave Chappelle, the elusive comedian who ditched his $50 million contract with Comedy Central for "Chappelle's Show" in 2005 and fled to Africa. Though he briefly spies Chappelle in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he now lives with his wife and children, he can't get an interview. So he pieces together Chappelle's origins and current and past motivations by interviewing dozens of friends, colleagues and fellow comedians.

The resulting book doesn't exactly answer why Chappelle temporarily abandoned his career - he recently resurfaced on the stand-up circuit - but it does offer several convincing arguments, most notably that Chappelle, in addition to being disillusioned with the work he was doing on "Chappelle's Show," felt his TV stardom was seriously interfering with stand-up, the work he loved to do best.

Zinoman paints a considered and fascinating portrait of one of his generation's best comedians, and also of the environment in which Chappelle cut his teeth. Zinoman quotes from Chappelle's most recent magazine interview: "White people, white artists," Chappelle says, "are allowed to be individuals. But we always have this greater struggle that we at least have to keep in mind somewhere."

The Genie at Low Tide

(Ploughshares Solos; $0.99)

In Paul Byall's achingly brief short story, a former major-league baseball player living an isolated retired life off the coast of South Carolina gets an unexpected visit from a woman claiming to be his daughter. Josh is skeptical, but when Marybelle begins cleaning his house and cooking for him, he realizes having a pushy woman in his life might not be such a bad thing.

Still, he begins to wonder whether Marybelle is real, or just a product of his lonely imagination, a "genie," as he calls her. It turns out that Marybelle needs a couple of favors in return for her magical assistance, and as Josh comes to appreciate the "minor miracles" Marybelle has brought into his life, he also learns to appreciate being needed himself. Byall writes with a keen ear for dialogue, and the sultry, picturesque setting of coastal South Carolina will leave readers wanting more from these two mysterious characters.

Founders Less Than Three

In writer and tech entrepreneur Halley Suitt Tucker's fast-paced novel, tech wizards at a fictional accelerator program at MIT compete to get their startups noticed and, more important, funded. The novel's protagonist is Monica, whose betrayal by her philandering tech mogul husband prompts her to ditch Silicon Valley for Boston and start her own company with the help of the exclusive accelerator program, called Celery, which is modeled after the real-life Techstars program.

Though "Founders Less Than Three" is lighthearted and sexy, Tucker makes some serious points about the status of women in technology, satirizing the male-dominated field and exposing women's tendency to pitch only to the men in the room, and to compete with what few other women there are in the field, instead of championing them.